GKids to Distribute Latest Studio Ghibli Movie

Entertainment Industry trade magazine Variety reports that GKids has picked up the distribution rights to Studio Ghibli's latest movie, From Up On Poppy Hill. Renowned director Hayao Miyazaki wrote the screenplay for the shoujo manga adaptation, while son Goro Miyazaki directed.

Gkids will screen the movie this year to qualify for 2013's Academy Awards before a larger March, 2013 release. Earlier this year, the movie won the award for animated feature in the 35th Japan Academy Prizes.

Variety explains that the movie is set in 1963 Yokohama, and follows a pair of high school students who are battling the demolition of a historic building as they deal with their own families' past secrets. There's been a lot of talk about how the movie is the first part of a nostalgia-focus at the studio.

This is the first release of a first-run Studio Ghibli film from GKids, who have been touring a 13-movie Ghibli retrospective across North America. It constitutes a break from the previous run of Disney-distributed Ghibli movies.

(the movie's French trailer was more interesting than the Japanese ones)

Coming out of the Annecy Animation Film Festival, GKids also announced that they picked up the French animated features The Rabbi’s Cat - based on the Joann Sfar graphic novel and Zarafa

Disney seems to want the more fantastical kid-friendly stuff that's more in line with its brand.
Stuff like Princess Mononoke was released under Miramax, and it's likely stuff like Poppy Hill is of more interest to an older audience than for kids. So might as well let some other distributor get it. It won't bring in the cash that something like Spirited Away, Howl's and Arrietty potentially can.

When they originally signed Mononoke the got access to Ghibli's film distribution channels. This was part of the reason the got into a bidding war with Dreamworks over some of the later films, not because they though Howl's (Incredibly scatter-shot and disappointing) Castle was can't miss but because they wanted to shut Dreamworks out from having that distribution deal.
Maybe Disney has moved past needing Ghibli, or just they don't care if a company that doesn't seem to be a threat to them gets involved and gains access.

Saw this last week in London (at the BFIs Anime weekend). Re Goro directing - this is much much better than Earthsea. Film itself is more along the lines of Whispers of the Heart than Ghibli's more fantastical movies - but none the worse for that. Will surely pick it up when its out on DVD